Some months ago Kari Nguyen, editor in Stymie Magazine, asked “Why do you write?”, for their column with the same title.

I had just come across some beautiful images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope which inspired an image essay as reply. Here it is:

Why I Write – in Stymie Magazine

Thank you so much Kari for asking me to contribute to the beautiful column on writing and for allowing me to write the essay in whatever form that came to mind.

(Image: Le Monde est Artificiel by Isabelle Pariente-Butterlin

The top image in the article itself is taken by H. Jensen.)

Sexual Dimorphism – A Nightmare Transcribed from Sanskrit – has been included in the longlist for Wigleaf‘s Top 50 Short Fiction 2012.

Thank you so much to Selecting Editor Danielle Evans and Series Editor Laura Ellen Scott for including my story in the longlist!

Warm congratulations to Ethel Rohan, Molly Laich, Steve Himmer, Tawnysha Greene, Faith Gardner, and many others for being included in the Top 50, and to Matthew Salesses for being longlisted!

(Image: Zermatt by Joana Salta, used by kind permission. Check out her fantastic images!)

Prose poem Not Quite Dark Yet is up in the new issue of Eye to the Telescope, guest edited by Joanne Merriam (to see the poem, scroll down the page).

This prose poem is a homage in haibun form to the classical haiku Not Quite Dark Yet by Japanese poet and painter Yosa Buson (1716-1784).

Thank you so much to Joanne for selecting this poem for her guest edited issue!

Do check out the other fine poems in the issue.

(Image: Sky by Isabelle Pariente-Butterlin. Used by kind permission from the photographer. Check out her fantastic images and texts!)

“I like being able to pick out a story to read according to my mood, like a chocolate truffle from this gourmet box.”

A very favorable review of Beneath the Liquid Skin at The LitPub by Chris Galvin Nguyen!

Thank you so much Chris for reading my book and writing such a thorough and positive review of it!

All of the texts inspired by Matthew Salesses’ book I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying that were featured in February on Sundog Lit as Romantics are now collected and available for Kindle on Amazon.

Featuring work by Delaney No, Myfanwy Collins, Robert Kloss, Amber Sparks, Ethel Rohan, Sean Lovelace, Christopher Boucher, Kevin Fanning, Scott Garson, Dave Housley, Jamie Poissant, Mike Scalise, Gregory Sherl, Cam Terwilliger, Laura van den Berg,  Extie Ecks, Mary-Kim Arnold, Jensen Beach, Kirstin Chen, Michael Copperman, Berit Ellingsen, Dan Gutstein, Carissa Halston & Randolph Pfaff, Aubrey Hirsch & Devan Goldstein, Jamie Iredell, Alyssa Knickerbocker, Reese Okyong Kwon, Courtney Maum, Chantel Tattoli, Daniel Torday, and Christine Lee Zilka, with cover by SDL design/editor Cynthia Brandon Slocum.

Many warm thanks to Matthew Salesses for inviting me to participate in the project and to Justin L. Daugherty for collecting it all and publishing it at Sundog Lit!

(Image: The cover of I’m Not Saying I’m Just Saying)

New interview about writing and being Asian in Timothy Moore’s blog (Timothy is editor of beautiful and fantastically titled lit mag Ghost Ocean Magazine), in his series of interviews with Asian artists.

Thank you so much Tim for asking me to join this very interesting series of interviews!

Loking forward to reading the remaining interviews.

(Image: Venus, Earth and Jupiter as seen from the surface of Mars, by Unknown)

Story Tapes, the awesome Faith Gardner‘s video reading project, has a Story Swap of flash fiction.

I was so lucky to be asked to read Tania Hershman’s Tragic Men, which is a favorite of her stories, so of course I said yes.

Tania read my apocalyptic Poison Ore Heart.

You can see it all on Story Tapes #6!

Many thanks to Faith and Tania for the wonderful Story Swap!!!

(Image: Story Tapes’ logo)

““Tache noire is the dark, red-brown stripe that develops horizontally across the eyes when the eyelids are not closed after death.” – from Emedicine.Medscape.com.

The red cabin by the sea used to house a serial killer. The small structure looks just like the one in the middle of your parents’ plot in the communal garden, only this is by the ocean, instead of in a city. Your mother always wanted a summer house at the coast.”

Tache Noire – is now published in the journal Requited.

Thank you to to the editors for living this dark tale about serial killers down.

(Image by Shahriar Erfanian.)

Science Fiction author Alastair Reynolds has reviewed the Rocket Science anthology (edited by Ian Sales) in Vector, the British Science Fiction Association’s magazine.

The review of the anthology as a whole is favorable, and Reynolds’ comment on Dancing on the Red Planet is that it’s “Surreal but note-perfect”.

Receiving a favorable comment to a story from one of the most well known British SF authors who not only specializes in stories set in the far future in space, but who also is a former scientist, is unexpected and amazing beyond words!

Thank you so much Alastair Reynolds!

(Image: the cover of Rocket Science, edited by Ian Sales.)

“In zen there is a saying: “First thought, best thought.” The first thought or reaction we have to anything or anyone is the best, because it is the most spontaneous and therefore also the most honest one, despite our intentions, education, upbringing, and all the other social conditioning we carry. However, in most situations we can’t act on our first thought, particularly if it’s a negative reaction, and we can definitely not express it. But sometimes, the first thought really is the best, even if it’s not a nice one.”

The creative non-fiction piece First Thought, Best Thought, about race, class and bad pickup lines, is among the first to be published in Sundog Lit’s Romantics, stories inspired by Matthee Salesses’ new book I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying.

Also check out the Romantics story Contain by fellow Queen’s Ferry Press writer and Wigleaf chief Scott Garson!

Many thanks Matthew for inviting me to contribute with a story and to Sundog Lit’s editor Justin L. Daugherty for publishing the project! Thank you so much guys, I feel so honored to be among the Sundog Lit’s Romantics!

(Image: Norway by Jon Rafman and Google Street View)